Textbooks on Israel-Palestine: The Politics of Education and Knowledge in the West: 1 (Unsettling Colonialism in our Times)

by: Seyed Hadi Borhani (Author)

Publisher: I.B. Tauris

Publication Date: 24 Feb. 2022

Language: English

Print Length: 264 pages

ISBN-10: 1350233080

ISBN-13: 9781350233089

Book Description

How is the Israel/Palestine question narrated in Weste academia? What ideas dominate the key textbooks on the subject and what is presented as ‘truth’? This book answers these critical questions. It is widely known that Weste support of Israel played a vital role in the realization of Zionist objectives in Palestine. But academic support of Israel in the West has been a neglected issue, with Weste academic knowledge being regarded as impartial and objective. This book reveals that this understanding of Weste academic knowledge is wrong when it comes to the Israel/Palestine question. Rather, knowledge has been biased, misleading, and dogmatic and Weste college students are subscribing to ‘factual histories’ based on theories at best, if not fiction. The book is the first empirical investigation able to document this partial reporting of history. Seyed Hadi Borhani examines the most popular college-level textbooks used to teach the history of the Israel/Palestine in Weste universities, combining ‘textbook analysis’ (to determine how the dominant academic texts report the question) and a ‘context analysis’ (to identify who ‘manufactures’ the dominant knowledge). The book provides a historical map of how the Israel-Palestine conflict is understood in the West. The book can be used as a critique for students and professors to use alongside textbooks and is a vital and much-needed intervention into the state of affairs in Weste academia.
How is the Israel/Palestine question narrated in Weste academia? What ideas dominate the key textbooks on the subject and what is presented as ‘truth’? This book answers these critical questions. It is widely known that Weste support of Israel played a vital role in the realization of Zionist objectives in Palestine. But academic support of Israel in the West has been a neglected issue, with Weste academic knowledge being regarded as impartial and objective. This book reveals that this understanding of Weste academic knowledge is wrong when it comes to the Israel/Palestine question. Rather, knowledge has been biased, misleading, and dogmatic and Weste college students are subscribing to ‘factual histories’ based on theories at best, if not fiction. The book is the first empirical investigation able to document this partial reporting of history. Seyed Hadi Borhani examines the most popular college-level textbooks used to teach the history of the Israel/Palestine in Weste universities, combining ‘textbook analysis’ (to determine how the dominant academic texts report the question) and a ‘context analysis’ (to identify who ‘manufactures’ the dominant knowledge). The book provides a historical map of how the Israel-Palestine conflict is understood in the West. The book can be used as a critique for students and professors to use alongside textbooks and is a vital and much-needed intervention into the state of affairs in Weste academia.